Firstly I am aware that a great deal has been written on this subject, however...

I have a few questions on the whole (regular) P-Coy process. I approach this from a non-infantry background, therefore apologies if some of the questions are a bit basic. (I have looked at the official army P-Coy website and as many of the previous post I could find.)

Firstly I am aware that there are a number of pre-P-Coy 'beat-up' courses, can anyone tell me if there is any real difference between them, which provide better or worse preparation for P-Coy? (my cap-badge does not run one).

Secondly kit, is it a case of issue kit only? If not, any recommendations for boots etc? Anything other than the obvious; C95, webbing, bergan, PT kit etc, required?

Thirdly, the obvious one, fitness training and other preparation. Has anybody used the Adrian Weale Fighting Fit Book and then done P-Coy? Was it adequate? Has anybody recently done P-Coy in their late 20s/early 30s, how did you find it? Also any advice on training for heights/the trainasium, clearly its not the sort of thing most of us have access to!

Finally, any good advice from anyone who has done P-Coy recently relevent and useful to a non-infanteer. I had considered approaching one of the co-located infantry Bns with a view to joining in some battle-PT/assault course training however this may not be possible and I imagine will be covered in any pre-P-Coy course anyway.

Also I understand that more is expected of officers, can anyone expand on this?

I appreciate there are quite a lot of questions here, but all good advice is gratefully recieved.

Thanks, unfortunately my motivation for wanting to be able to pass P-Coy is to allow me to work within the airborne/air-assault world in order to widen my professional experience. Sadly no such opportunities currently exist in 3 Cdo Bde, therefore P-Coy.

Quite honestly for me P-Coy would be a means to an end, I have no particular interest in the badge collecting element of it, I just appreciate that without doing it I won't be able to get the experience I want.